Protests and violence continue over Citizenship Amendment Act: Indian PM calls for calm

RT
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:10 UTC

© Reuters / Adnan Abidi

Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against a new citizenship law, in New Delhi, India, December 15, 2019.

New Delhi police have released all those unfairly detained in a raid on Jamia Millia Islamia campus, where officers had rounded up a violent mob that had torched vehicles and pelted stones at a march over a new citizenship law.

An agitated crowd of protesters gathered outside a police station in the capital New Delhi on Sunday night, demanding that authorities immediately release students of the Muslim university, who had been detained earlier in the day. By roughly 3:30am local time, the crowd had gradually dispersed after police said they had released everyone who wasn't charged.

The university accused riot police of raiding its campus illegally, using tear gas, and brutally abusing students and staff. More than two dozen people, including several policemen, were injured in clashes.

Students insist their protest was non-violent and claim that police entered the college and indiscriminately fired tear gas. Videos shared on social media show chaos in the university's buildings, as the sound of smashing glass and what seem to be riot control weapon shots can be heard.

© Hindustan Times

While they technically should have sought university permission first, authorities argue that the officers were actively chasing a violent mob that had taken refuge on the open campus. "We only acted to control the situation after violence," senior police officer Chinmaya Biswal told ANI.

We have no problem with university students... Our only interest is to push the mob back, so law and order can be restored in the area

The university and students themselves meanwhile blamed all the violence and disorder on unidentified locals who joined the "genuinely peaceful" protest in an attempt to "discredit" it. Earlier in the day, a march that started on the university grounds almost immediately turned violent, with a mob pelting stones at police and torching at least three buses and dozens of bikes.

We had to push them back... they started pelting stones and bottles filled with oil...

Authorities admit that they can't definitively say if it was a mob of students or locals who started the violence. "They were being very, very aggressive and violent and they have been pushed to the Jamia Nagar area from where they originated," explained Biswal, whose officers are now being accused of using excessive force as activists online are rallying in solidarity with the 'peaceful protesters.'

The unrest in India was triggered by a bill that fast-tracks citizenship for migrants belonging to religious minorities that fled Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan for India before 2015. The law does not affect the Muslims of India in any way, but critics either unwittingly or intentionally interpreted it as discriminatory, leading to a wave of outrage and unrest.

Comment: Modi has had great success in peacefully resolving complex problems, like the abrogation of Kashmir's special status and peacefully resolving the centuries-old Babri Masjid issue.

However, he appears to have been caught unprepared in the case of this Citizenship Amendment Act, which has triggered long-standing insecurities in India's northeastern states over the fear of immigrant Bengalis dominating the local culture and administration.

The Modi government was able to control the violence in Assam after a week of protests through a curfew, social media control and other measures.

But the protests have since spread to the neighboring state of West Bengal, where some railway stations were vandalized and burned by a mob.

West Bengal is due for assembly elections in 2021, along with the northeastern state of Assam. West Bengal's ruling party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), is locked in fierce battle with Modi's BJP over electoral fortunes in those coming assembly elections. As many as 150 lives were lost in West Bengal during the May 2019 Parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, the protests have spread to several high-profile Muslim universities, like Jamia Milia Usmania in New Delhi. Delhi police and student leaders have blamed outsiders for the burning of buses there. The student protests have now spread to other campuses in solidarity with Jamia students.

India Today reports:

In Hyderabad's Maulana Azad Urdu University, students held a protest march post midnight in solidarity with the Jamia students and demanded that their exams be postponed.

There were angry demonstrations at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi and at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata with demands that the government take action against police "hooliganism".

Students from the Mumbai University and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) protested on the streets shouting slogans such as "Shame on Delhi Police".

Students at Central University of Kerala, Kasargod and Pondicherry University boycotted classes. Students from Patiala's Punjab University, Patna University and Chennai's Loyola College also joined in the protest that has created ripples in the country.

West Bengal's Chief Minister, Mamata Benejee, and opposition leaders have joined the protesters. The BJP has blamed the violence on the opposition parties. Modi has expressed distress over the protests in an effort to reassure citizens:

Identity politics and societal polarization is nothing new to India - it has been pervasive since India first won independence from Britain. Here is Indian analyst Shekhar Gupta with more in-depth information about this new citizenship law: